Toothache Turns Deadly With Friend's Advice

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 22 May 2017)


    Arzık even considered self-dentistry.

Misuse of a medicine nearly killed Naifi Arzık. In December Arzık went
to the Izmir Dental Training Hospital because of a long-standing pain in
a tooth.  After examination it turned out that Arzık had an abscess in a
tooth but it could not be dealt with immediately.  Arzık was given an
antibiotic to take but, nevertheless, the tooth pain did not ease.

So, based on the advice of a friend (!), Arzık put a flu pill between his teeth
and pressed.  At first, the pain eased so he tried the same thing the next
day.  But Arzık's face suddenly began to swell and he could not leave the
house for three days, until his family took him to the Bozyaka Training
and Research Hospital.

Doctors determined that the tooth abscess had burst from the pressure of
the flu pill and the infection had spread to his chest.  Drs. Hasan Ersöz and
İbrahim Taylan operated on Arzık for 7 hours to open his chest and fully
purge the infection.  Arzık was unconscious for 65 of the 85 days he spent
in intensive care.

Dr. Ersöz commented that "this illness is 90% deadly because the infection
had spread to the most dangerous parts of his body.  Now, though, he's fine."